What do metal water tanks, pickup trucks and RV chassis have in common? They’re all assembled in state-of-the-art facilities that were finalists for the 2011 Assembly Plant of the Year award.
The Assembly Top 50 devoted $110.6 billion to capital expenditures in 2010. That’s 9 percent more than they spent in 2009, but it’s 21 percent less than they spent in 2008. Only 15 of the Top 50 spent more on property, plants and equipment in 2010 than they spent in 2008.
In 2010, the Top 50 employed 6.86 billion people worldwide. That’s 4 percent more than they employed in 2009, but it’s slightly under the total for 2008.
Bombardier Aerospace has borrowed several ideas from the auto industry that it hopes will help streamline production of the new CSeries regional jetliner.
Northrop Grumman, Sikorsky and other aerospace defense manufacturers recently unveiled state-of-the-art assembly lines that will enable them to boost capacity and improve efficiency.
In addition to using the latest lean manufacturing principles, Boeing's new 787 assembly plant is one of the greenest factories in the aerospace industry.
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